The
Pomo peoples of California, whose traditional lands once included
what is now the wine-growing regions north of San Francisco, and
the Paiute peoples who live near modern Reno on the California-Nevada
border, are two examples of Native peoples who have suffered the
legacy of the Gold Rush for 150 years.

Mercury and
other toxic heavy metals left behind as waste by the miners have poisoned
the fish and the Tule reeds in both communities. In November and December
1997 respectively the Unites States Environmental Protection Agency hired
the first full time field representatives in these communities to help
address these issues, almost a century and a half after the first invasions.

Unfortunately
the gold invasions have not ended for these communities. Mining for gold
is still a reality at the end of the 20th century, although the mines
of today employ cyanide, another toxic chemical.

Before the
1840's some 3000 Pomo peoples lived in 30 villages around Clear Lake.
Life changed dramatically when ranchers like Charles Stone and Andrew
Kelsey captured and bought hundreds of Pomo, forcing them to work as slaves
on a large ranch. Tribal historian William Benson reported later in his
diaries: "From severe whippings, four died. A nephew of an Indian
lady who was forced to live with Stone (as his whore) was shot to death
by Stone. When a father or mother of a young girl was asked to bring the
girl to his house [for sex] by Stone or Kelsey, if this order was not
obeyed , he or she would be hung up by the hands and whipped."

Kelsey also
forced Pomo men into the mountains as virtual slaves to help him look
for gold. Eventually Shak and Xasis, two Pomo cowboys, took the law into
their own hands and executed both settlers, prompting the other Pomos
to flee to the north end of the lake and up to the Russian River in Mendocino
County. In May 1850, the United States Army, led by Nathaniel Lyon, arrived
to find the former slaves. Unable to find them, the ransacked Pomo villages.

"The
white warriors went across in their long dugouts. The Indians said they
would meet them in peace so when the whites landed the Indians went to
welcome them ... Ge-Wi-Lih said he threw up in his hand ... but the white
man fired and shot him in the arm ... she said when they gathered the
dead, they found all the little ones were killed by being stabbed an many
of the women were also killed by stabbing ... this old lady also told
about how the whites hung a man on the Emerson Island ... and a large
fire built under him. And another ... was tied to a tree and burnt to
death," records a Pomo history.

The following
year, on August 18, 1851, Redick McKee, a federal Indian agent, arrived
at Clear Lake, to negotiate a treaty of 'Peace and Friendship' with eight
chiefs of the Native community, under which the community gave up title
to their land in exchange for 10 head of cattle, three stacks of bread
and sundry clothing.

The Paiute
(who call themselves the Numa) suffered a similar fate. Initially many
Numa helped the argonauts who were finding it difficult to cross the Sierra
Nevada. Captain Truckee (after whom the river is named) of the Numa persuaded
his peoples to help the settlers, personally joining the United States
troops to fight against Mexico. After Truckee's death, his son and his
granddaughter - Chief Winnamucca (after whom the central Nevada town is
called) and the Thocmetony (later known as Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins) -
negotiated with the soldiers, even going to Washington to lobby the president
to allow the Paiute to live in peace.

The situation
deteriorated rapidly at the end of the California Gold Rush when silver
was discovered in 1859 on the eastern end of Sun Mountain (later called
the Comstock Lode) prompting thousands of new miners to settle in Numa
territory.

J. Ross
Browne, a visitor to the mines, described what he saw when he descended
into the new mines: "It is as if a wondrous battle raged, in which
the combatants were man and earth, Myriad's of swarthy, bearded, dust-covered
men are piercing into the grim old mountains, ripping them open, thrusting
murderous holes through their naked bodies; piling up engines to cut out
their vital arteries; stamping and crushing up with the infernal machines
their disemboweled fragments, and holding fiendish revels amid the chaos
of destruction."

Among those
profiting from this plunder was a former Missouri lead miner and Œ49er
named George Hearst, founder of Homestake mining. His son, William Randolph
Hearst, built the San Francisco Examiner into a major newspaper.

There were
numerous conflicts. In 1865 a cavalry captain named Wells accused the
Paiute of stealing cattle in Oregon and killing two white miners. The
soldiers attacked a Paiute camp at Mud Lake, when the men were away fishing,
killing all but one of the women, children and elderly who had stayed
behind.

The Numa
eventually submitted to government orders to move to the Pyramid Lake
reservation. Others were marched to the Malheur reservation in Oregon,
and still others who joined the Bannock peoples in 1878 were incarcerated
at the Yakima reservation in Washington. The Comstock mines were closed
in 1895 after generating 350 million dollars for their owners.

Today, only
one group of Pomo still live on Clear Lake although there are several
small Rancheria some distance away from the waterfront. This 50-acre property,
known as the Elem reservation, was created in the 1970's after a group
of Berkeley school children began a newspaper campaign to demand the return
of Native American land. The federal government reluctantly provided the
community with houses on land reclaimed from mercury waste dumps of the
Sulfur Bank mine that shut down in 1957.

In 1979
the community discovered the mercury problem. Jim Brown, a Pomo activist
who has led the struggle to demand clean up, says that the suspects that
the mercury has affected many in the community. "My dad, who was
a miner, died at the age of 59 from cancer with high levels of mercury
from eating the fish. As kids we played in the caves left behind by the
old miners but we had no idea that they were polluted," he says.

In 1991
the area was declared a Superfund site. "Today we live on the largest
lake in California, but we don't have fishing rights despite the fact
that 70 percent of our property is on the lakefront. The greatest benefits
go to the University of California, Davis, which is conducting research
studies on the mercury problems, and to Homestake," he adds.

But Raymond
Brown Jr., the new EPA field representative for the Clear Lake Pomo vows
that his children will get better protection than he had. "The fish
from the lake used to be in our dinners most of the week. The majority
of the elderly people had high mercury levels. I have a daughter and I
want her to know," he says.

In Paiute
country also the mines are now slowly releasing their hidden toxins into
the Carson River which supports those who still live on the 4,600-acre
reservation of Fallon.

Rose Rodarte,
the EPA field representative, says that her community was told a few months
ago that it would have to abandon the old traditions. "We used to
eat ducks, geese, fish and Tule reeds. We use the Tule to make baskets
which involves holding the reeds in our teeth," she says.

And Anita
Collins, who runs the Nevada Intertribal Environmental Coalition, says
that the problems are mounting throughout the border region. "The
old Leviathan mine in California is dumping toxins into tribal lands in
Nevada. The tribe is working with the local community to try and get a
Superfund clean-up authorized, but the local community is worried that
this might frighten away business."